Alternate Names of Cape Town

[Pokemon Master]

If European imperialists hadn't used Cape Town for the name of one of the largest cities in South Africa, what could they have used?

Perhaps the names of OTL Cape Town suburbs like Muizenberg, Goodwood, or Fish Hoek.

 

[Thespitron 6000]

If European imperialists hadn't used Cape Town for the name of one of the largest cities in South Africa, what could they have used?

Perhaps the names of OTL Cape Town suburbs like Muizenberg, Goodwood, or Fish Hoek.

Well, who colonized it? In my TL, it was colonized by the Spanish, and they called it Puerta Foca ("Seal Port").

 

[Pokemon Master]

It was first colonized by the Dutch, but was taken by the British during the Boer Wars.

 

[Thespitron 6000]

It was first colonized by the Dutch, but was taken by the British during the Boer Wars.

Yes, I know that, I mean who would be the colonizers in the proposed TL? What's the POD?

 

[Horatius Cocles]

If it was colonized by the Portuguese I'd suggest "Boa Esperança" (Good Hope, as the Portuguese king named it) or even "Vasco da Gama" (to celebrate the first navigator that crossed it).

A changing that would work in all languages would be to change the "Town" part of the name to "Port" or "Fort", like the French: "Fort(Port) du Cap"

 

[Dathi THorfinnsson]

How about Table Mountain, in whatever language, for the backdrop?

 

[Emperor Constantine]

Who even named Cape town? The Dutch or the British?

 

[Umbric Man]

Who even named Cape town? The Dutch or the British?

The Dutch, as Kaapstad.

Perhaps the English coulda fully translated it with direct cognates as Capestead, which is snazzy-sounding.

 

[Emperor Constantine]

The Dutch, as Kaapstad.

Perhaps the English coulda fully translated it with direct cognates as Capestead, which is snazzy-sounding.

Thanks.

yeah Capestead does sound cool. Could it be named after a person instead? Perhaps Georgetown?

 

[Elfwine]

Thanks.

yeah Capestead does sound cool. Could it be named after a person instead? Perhaps Georgetown?

Easily.

Maybe something referring to a different aspect of its geography?

Southtown (probably sounds better in French or Spanish).

Or a New (existing town name).

Lots of options really - town names are rarely based on anything fixed enough for it to be a problem to change OTL's choice.

 

[Thespitron 6000]

Cabo del Sur.
New Truro.

 

[JimTheB]

Land's End

 

[The Ubbergeek]

If it was France, maybe something like Aix-du-Sud, maybe.

 

[JimTheB]

Or Neuf-Finisterre.

 

[Neirdak]

Umm let's see :

- Diemen's bay (Governor General of the VOC)
- Riebeeck's bay (Founder of Cape Town)
- Nieuw Colemborg (The city where he was born)
- Maria (the name of his wife)
- Fort de Goede Hoope/Castle of Goede Hoope -> Fort Hope -> Hope
- Nieuw Rotterdam
- Nieuw Djakarta


- Khoikoi or Nama

They ask the name of the place and the locals give them their own name, somebody writes it on a map and we have the City of Khoikhoi. You can also use Khoikhoi words or expressions (like "Go to hell") or Khoikhoi deities.

I will look if Khoikhoi named this place --> Bingo !!! The original name given to the mountain by the first Khoi inhabitants was Hoeri 'kwaggo ("sea mountain").

 

[The Ubbergeek]

And for the more leftfield asian colonisators (improbable but...)... I wonder what would be the name like in an indian language.

 

[Simreeve]

Renamed as 'New Gibraltar' by the British, shortly after it's taken over by us/them, because just as ["Old"] Gibraltar stands as our base at the mouth of the Mediterranean this town stands as our base at the "mouth" of the Indian Ocean?
After all, it's even got a 'Rock'...

 

[Horatius Cocles]

Bonae Spei, "good hope" in Latin has a Draka-ish feeling.

 

[katchen]

Depending on which group of Puritans or dissenters got a charter from the British East India Company (instead of the Plymouth Company to settle North America) to settle at the Cape of Good Hope during the 1620s (before the Dutch settled there), I could see the place being named alternately, Plymouth or New Plymouth or New South Plymouth, Boston or New Boston or South Boston, or New Haven depending on whether the Scrooby Congregation, John Winthrop or John Hooker founded the colony.

 

[Opunium]

Umm let's see :

-
I will look if Khoikhoi named this place --> Bingo !!! The original name given to the mountain by the first Khoi inhabitants was Hoeri 'kwaggo ("sea mountain").

Hoer would really work well for the Dutch colonists setting up the Cape Colony....